Candied Walnuts

At the New Year, honey augurs the sweetness of the year to come. Sometimes a honeycomb is symbolically touched to children’s lips, but all the Georgian children I know would rather eat gozinaki, the New Year’s treat of nuts candied in honey. Gozinaki keeps well, a convenience considering that the New Year’s feasting often runs on and on. On January 14, Georgians celebrate a second New Year, based on the old-style Julian calendar still observed by the Orthodox Church.